Dalai Lama Arrives In Italy On Private Visit

Beijing has complained to the Italian foreign ministry over the visit, which will take the Dalai Lama to Rome for four days from December 12, even though he will not meet with any members of the Italian government or with Pope Benedict XVI.

'Beijing's displeasure was communicated to us, informally, by the foreign ministry, but we view it as a routine reaction from the Chinese every time the Dalai Lama travels to a country,' a northern politician, Davide Gariglio, told Agence France-Presse last week.

The political high point of the Dalai Lama's stay will likely be his meeting with Italian lawmakers in Rome on a date that has yet to be set, according to the parliamentary press office.

The Tibetan Buddhist leader will not appear in the assembly hall but in a side room, according to House of Deputies speaker Fausto Bertinotti.

In northern Milan, the Dalai Lama will lead a three-day conference starting Friday to be attended by some 8,000 people, the ANSA news agency said, adding that he will meet Mayor Letizia Moratti.

After Rome, the Dalai Lama will return to the north where he will visit Turin on December 15 and 16.

His meeting in September with German Chancellor Angela Merkel sparked an angry reaction from Beijing, but Merkel stood her ground.

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Ambedkar University Convocation — Tibet House and Men-tsee-khang AnniversariesDecember 9th 2016New Delhi, India, 9 December 2016 - His Holiness the Dalai Lama flew from Dharamsala to Delhi yesterday afternoon. This morning his public engagements began with an interview for CBS and a conversation on Facebook live with Kailash Satyarthi, founder of the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation and co-winner of the 2104 Nobel Peace Prize. Asked about Satyarthi’s work to protect children’s rights, His Holiness declared it wonderful, adding that children are the basis of our hope for a better future.